1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to problem generators and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a problem generator capable of generating vast numbers of unique, random problems.
2. Description of the Related Art
In education, students solve problems to enhance and test their educational skill levels. Testing materials that the students read and answer include books and testing questionnaires. Recent advances in electronics have computerized these testing materials to eliminate teacher generated testing materials and to provide the student with immediate feedback.
A computer learning apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,441,415, issued to Lee et al., on Aug. 15, 1995. The Lee system includes a work station, a database, and a computer. The computer accesses a plurality of lessons covering a variety of educational subjects from the database. The lessons have many styles, including voice, audio, pictures, animation, and symbolism, and cover a variety of comprehension levels within each subject.
Once the student has completed the first lesson, the system determines the student's comprehension level by using an expert system, or alternatively, a teacher overseeing the student's results. Once the student's comprehension level is determined, a second lesson that corresponds to the student's comprehension level is given.
The Lee system, however, suffers several disadvantages. If a student requires multiple tutorials to master a specific lesson, the student potentially sees repetitive questions. The Lee system retrieves questions from a database for creating lessons for students. If a student repeatedly works a comprehension level of a particular subject, unique problems may become exhausted. This repetition potentially permits a student to obtain an artificially high score, thereby allowing the student to pass the lesson without mastering the material.
Furthermore, as problems become exhausted, the teacher must spend time creating and entering new problems to the database or funds must be spent to purchase additional problems for the database. Moreover, sometimes a new database or tutorial aid must be purchased altogether. These drawbacks waste the teacher's time and/or the school's financial resources.
One possible solution is to increase the size of the database. Unfortunately, increasing the database's size renders it unsuitable for storing on a hard drive or diskette, or transferring over a network, such as the Internet.
Accordingly, a problem generator that creates of large numbers of random problems, will improve over conventional computerized educational systems.